Summer stories: Revised

Well, you may consider us an unusual family because we recently allowed a Black Swallowtail caterpillar to live in our bathroom for a couple of weeks. Paulie had discovered him living on a bouquet of Queen Anne's Lace that Melody had picked. He was very beautiful and content to live on the flowers, feasting all day long; so I put "Rufio" in our unused fish tank and kept him supplied with fresh flowers. He became a regular fixture in our lives...until...

Here's where it gets really interesting. Yesterday, "Rufio" went missing. Oh my. He recently measured at about 2 inches long and about a 1/4 inch thick. Pretty large, actually and very colorful. The whole family combed the bathroom, top to bottom. He was nowhere to be found. Great. None of us were very pleased about the idea of "Rufio" roaming our house.

Just then I thought that maybe we should check UNDER the heater vent. Sure enough, he was there. Whew! Paulie coaxed him onto his finger and placed him back into the tank...but unfortunately, even with fresh flowers, "Rufio" was not content to stay in the little world we had created for him. He tried numerous times, unsuccessfully, to climb out.

So, I made the decision to set him free. Paul took the three younger kids up to the meadow and they said goodbye to "Rufio". It was fun to have him with us for the few weeks...we watched him grow from 3/4 of an inch to 2+ inches! He shed his skin once and ate a ton of Queen Anne's Lace. It was fun to see all that up close. Something we couldn't have seen in the garden.

Hopefully, he will make it to the cocoon stage and eventually become the beautiful butterfly God intended!



Speaking of the garden, my vegetable garden is unbelievable this year! I can't believe it went from this:



To this!! You can barely see the trellis that Paulie made for my morning glories. It's hidden...but I am finally seeing beautiful purple flowers each morning.


I have tried to count how many butternut squash we have coming...I can't. There are so many hidden under the mammoth leaves...it's hard to see! Also, we have at least 3 nice sugar pumpkins...but again, they are probably camouflaged among the vines and leaves. It's cool to think that from a few tiny seeds, these healthy, producing plants have grown.
I have picked countless zucchini and at least 10 cucumbers. The grape tomatoes are prolific and there are also some re-seeded cherry tomatoes that are almost ready...it's a good year, apparently!